


More Fun than a Herd of Elephant-Buffalo

by longleggedgit



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-10 00:22:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1152579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longleggedgit/pseuds/longleggedgit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by: "I’m going with Zuko! --What? Everyone else went on a life-changing field trip with Zuko. Now it’s my turn."</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Fun than a Herd of Elephant-Buffalo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reallycorking](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reallycorking/gifts).



> Just a little buddy-buddy Toph and Zuko fic written in 2011 for my dearest [](http://reallycorking.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://reallycorking.livejournal.com/)**reallycorking** 's birthday. I hope you like it sweetheart! ♥♥♥

It's less than a month after the war has officially ended, and Toph is almost as bored as she used to get during Earthbending lessons.

"Why don't you try doing something useful for a change?" Sokka suggests, which is kind of funny considering that macking on his girlfriend has taken up approximately twenty-three hours out of every day ever since they tossed the former Fire Lord into prison.

"What, like finding myself a boyfriend?" she asks.

"Well, I was thinking something a little more achievable, but if you're just looking for something to keep you busy--"

He never finishes because Toph makes him trip over a rock and fall flat on his face; a kind of dirty trick considering his gimp leg, but definitely deserved. Then she stomps away to find Katara, but she can tell before even opening the door to the big balcony that she and Aang are being all _shmoopy_ again, so she turns right back around and stomps off the other way, toward the side exit that leads away from the palace.

"Why is everyone ever so completely _stupid_?" she yells, kicking up a dust path as she heads toward the lake. No one is around to answer her but the chicken-turkeys, but she's kind of glad, because at least chicken-turkeys aren't possessed by hormones.

It's not until she gets within spitting distance of the lake that she realizes someone is already standing there, on the opposite side; she was too distracted by being annoyed to notice him before.

"Well well well," Toph says, coaxing up a slab of rock to form an armchair underneath her. "I'm sure the new Fire Lord has a good excuse for skipping out on council meetings for the past four days and disappearing without a word to anyone?"

Zuko doesn't say anything, but Toph can feel how much he wants to be left alone radiating off of him in waves--you wouldn't have to be good with your feet to sense it. She shifts her chair so it carries her all the way around the perimeter of the lake, right next to where Zuko is crouched near the water's edge.

"I'll take that as a 'No,'" Toph says. "Man, you are going to be in _so_ much trouble when you go back there."

He still doesn't rise to the bait, and at length Toph relaxes back against her chair and sighs, feeling the boredom set in once again. "What were you doing, anyway?"

She's not really expecting an answer, but when Zuko says briskly, "Looking for someone," she can tell he's not lying.

"Did you find them?" she wants to know.

Another pause, and Zuko says, "I'm not sure."

"Hmph." Toph has no patience for Zuko being vague and miserable, so she tries to change the subject before he can get extra pathetic. "Does anyone else know you're back?"

He shakes his head once. Toph can't help the tinge in her voice when she clarifies, "Not even your _girlfriend_?"

Zuko swallows in a way that makes Toph certain he's going to be in even deeper trouble than she had predicted. "I--" he starts.

"Never mind, I don't wanna know." She jumps down to the ground and lets her chair crumble away, slapping a hand on Zuko's back, which seems to startle him. "What do you say we get out of here?"

He turns to her slowly, confusion taut in every line of his body. "What are you talking about?" he says.

"We still haven't really had our field trip," Toph reminds him, starting off in the direction of a river she can sense just past the big garden, not so far from here. Zuko follows after a brief hesitation, just like she knew he would.

"I don't blame you for running off," Toph says once Zuko falls in step beside her. "Everyone was really starting to annoy me, too. How long before you set us all up with our own private mansions so we aren't all boarding together in that palace, anyway?"

"Oh," Zuko says, like the suggestion is something he should feel bad about overlooking. This is why Toph likes Zuko; he's so easy.

"I guess you can start to focus on that after you guys get this whole world peace thing ironed out," Toph concedes.

Instead of commenting, Zuko asks, "Where are we going?"

"I don't know. Toward the river? This is your dumb kingdom, why don't you tell me?" Zuko stops in his tracks, and at first Toph thinks he's going to head back to the palace, much to her disappointment.

Instead, he just says "Uhhh," and she realizes he's considering the suggestion.

"I guess," he says at length, "there is something you might like. . . ."

"Which direction?"

She might not be able to see his face, but Toph has a perfect image of what Zuko looks like right now, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Huh? West, but it's a long walk from here--"

"I got it covered," Toph says, and without further conversation, which is quickly getting dull, she summons up a slab of rock big enough for the two of them and kicks it into full gear, letting her Earthbending carry them as fast as it will go.

It's only a few minutes later that Zuko tells her to stop, and she lets their ride collapse into a pile of dust so she can dig her feet into the sand and feel what's going on around them, ignoring Zuko's indignant yelp as he stumbles to the ground.

"Please don't ever do that again," Zuko says.

"There's nothing here!" Toph snaps. She's not sure why it makes her so mad, but the more she shifts her toes the more she's certain of it: Zuko has led them to the middle of nowhere. It's not like she had any reason to expect much of him, but she wanted just one of her friends to not turn out to be a complete disappointment today. Ever since the war ended, they've mostly been too busy falling in love with each other to even remember she exists.

"What time is it?" Zuko asks.

"Gee, I don't know, let me just check my watch."

Zuko snorts and says, "I think it'll only be a few minutes."

The words have no sooner escaped his mouth than something starts to vibrate in the soles of Toph's feet, traveling right up her spine. "Woah," she says, goosebumps rising on her neck. "What--"

But she doesn't need to finish her question, because the answer becomes apparent: the sensation now causing both her and Zuko to shake where they stand is the thunder of a herd of elephant-buffalo, at least a few dozen, roaring into the formerly empty clearing. Soon the sound and smell of them is almost as overwhelming as the feel, and they're coming in from all sides, surrounding Zuko and Toph as they slow to a trot and then a stop and begin to poke at the grass with their noses.

"They come here every evening like clockwork to graze," Zuko tells her. "Some days there are as many as a few hundred."

"Zuko," Toph says slowly, still shivering from the sensation of the stampede deep in her bones. "That was actually . . . really cool."

"Would you go so far as to say life-changing?" he asks.

Toph lets out a startled bark of laughter and smacks Zuko in the back again, hard enough that he stumbles. "Did you just make a joke, Zuko?"

"Definitely not," he says, but she can hear the smile on his lips.

"Maybe the world isn't doomed after all, now that you're Fire Lord."

Zuko hums and they both settle down to sit in the grass, listening to the elephant-buffalo snuffle around for food. Toph is even about to suggest to Zuko that they make field trips a regularly planned thing from now on when she feels someone approaching from a ways away—and not just anyone, judging by that stomp.

"Well, it was nice spending time with you. See you around!" Toph says, standing up and summoning another slab of rock.

"Wait—where are you going?" Zuko sputters.

"I just remembered something I have to do," Toph tells him, finding her footing on the rock. "Thanks again!"

With that, she zips away, Zuko still sitting with his legs crossed, scratching his neck in confusion. Toph doesn't go back to the palace, though; instead, she makes a wide circle and carries herself right up to a big tree, far enough away to be inconspicuous but with a good view of Zuko in the clearing. Mai is quickly approaching, and this is one couples reunion Toph wouldn't miss for anything, not even an elephant-buffalo stampede.

_end_  



End file.
